The invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning teats of an animal.
History in the field of automatic milking of animals is rather extensive. For the purpose of obtaining a high quality diary production it is important to clean the teats of an animal to be milked, prior to performing the actual milking.
European patent application 0 535 755 discloses a milking robot having a robot arm provided with an implement for cleaning teats. The implement is provided with brushes arranged in a bowl, which bowl has a shaft-like bottom end with an outlet for draining off a liquid cleansing agent. The liquid cleansing agent is supplied to the bowl through a supply line connector provided on the bowl. A sensor is provided at the foot of the shaft-like bottom end of the bowl for establishing the extent of contamination of the liquid being drained. A flow of liquid cleansing agent, from the supply line connector to the outlet of the bowl, is maintained until the sensor establishes that the contamination of the liquid cleaning agent has come below a pre-determined standard. According to EP 0 535 755 it is then assumed that the animal""s teats have been cleaned sufficiently, which permits the bowl to be removed and teat cups to be connected to the teats so that the process of milking can take place.
Teat cleaning for a long duration of time may cause problems with udder and/or teat irritation possibly leading to skin eczema, especially when the teat cleaning is applied frequently. The present invention relates to the problem of eliminating, or at least reducing, the occurrence of health problems caused by teat cleaning, and to an improvement of the gentleness of the teat cleaning process as experienced by the milk producing animals, as well as a reduction of the cleaning process time.
Analysis of the contamination of the drained liquid cleansing agent, which agent has been used for teat cleaning, by a sensor involves several complications. An example of these complications is the time delay between the time when a certain particle of the liquid cleansing agent is in cleaning position and the subsequent time when the agent and its degree of contamination may be sensed. The sensing equipment must be clean, calibrated and in good order to work properly. Different types of contamination are sensed by different sensors, which for optimal operation requires quite a number of sensors and processing techniques forming a vulnerable sensor system.
Another difficulty is to sense whether lumps occur or dry mud causing a high degree of contamination, but not much sedimentation of the liquid. Without any consideration to for instance lumps versus sedimentation, a sensor will be defective without an accurate calibration. One object of the invention according to this application is to provide a solution of the above mentioned problems through an introduction of less complicated techniques and by means of embodiments with fewer and less vulnerable components.
According to one embodiment of the invention this problem is addressed by an apparatus for cleaning teats of an animal, whereby the apparatus comprises a teat cleaning device having means for performing a cleaning action with regard to a teat of an animal to be cleaned. The apparatus is equipped with means for establishing the identity of the animal to be cleaned as well as means for controlling the teat cleaning device. This control is carried out in dependence on the established identity in such a way that an individually adapted cleaning action is obtained.
This solution advantageously makes it possible to reduce the occurrence of teat cleaning symptoms, while obtaining a high cleaning standard of the teats to be milked and treated as well as providing a cleaning action which is experienced as comfortable by the individual animal during the cleaning process. In this connection it is noted that milk producing animals, just like humans, exhibit individual differences as regards their behaviour. Among the animals, some individuals have a habit of often lying down on the ground, a behaviour which may cause the udder and some teats to become soiled, whereas some individuals rarely, or never, get soiled in that manner. Moreover, the milk producing animals exhibit individual differences as regards their inclination to develop certain unwanted health symptoms, such as teat infections, eczema or mastitis. The above described solution makes it possible to adapt the cleaning process in accordance with the needs of the individual animal such that an individual having a more xe2x80x9ccleanlyxe2x80x9d behaviour may get a gentle cleaning action and another individual having a more xe2x80x9csoilingxe2x80x9d behaviour may get a more extensive cleaning action, thereby reducing the risk for developing symptoms like the above described.
According to an embodiment of the invention the control means includes means for causing an individually adapted duration of the cleaning action for the identified animal. This embodiment makes it possible to adapt the cleaning process in accordance with the needs for the individual animal such that an individual having a more xe2x80x9ccleanlyxe2x80x9d behaviour may get a shorter cleaning action cycle, and another individual having a more xe2x80x9csoilingxe2x80x9d behaviour may get a longer duration of cleaning action cycle. This solution advantageously makes it possible to shorten the duration of the cleaning action for individuals having a xe2x80x9ccleanlyxe2x80x9d behaviour, thereby increasing the milking capacity of the milking robot since a larger number of animals can be treated per time unit when the duration of the cleaning action is shortened for some individuals.
According to another embodiment of the invention the means for performing a cleaning action includes means for providing liquid on a teat. In this embodiment, said control means includes means for causing an individually adapted concentration of a pre-determined substance in the liquid for the identified animal. This solution enables the dispensing of an individualised amount of a substance, such as soap, onto the teat in connection with the cleaning process. In automatic milking systems, like the Voluntary Milking System(trademark), VMS(trademark), the animals decide to go to the automatic milking robot at their own will, and therefore some individuals exhibit their teats to cleaning more often than other individuals. When an animal has a habit of going to the automatic milking system frequently, and that animal also has a xe2x80x9ccleanlyxe2x80x9d behaviour it is advantageous to adapt the cleaning action to that fact, e.g. by dispensing a reduced amount of the pre-determined substance. Moreover the teats of a milk producing animal are sensitive to touch, and the animals exhibit individual differences as regards their sensitivity to teat treatment.
An individual cleaning-, drying- and pre-milking treatment of each animal would be advantageous to optimise comfort and efficiency during handling. Outer conditions that could be considered in a fully individualised treatment are for instance time of the year, weather conditions and veterinary policies. Outer conditions may be sensed by means of a temperature measuring and/or humidity sensing equipment in connection with a computerised terminal, which is connected to a memory location of a unit for information storage. These sensed outer conditions could control an offset feature of the cleaning action. One example would be to increase the time of cleaning and the amount of cleaning substance during the cleaning action as a result of rainy outer conditions and therefore an additional soiling of the animal to be milked. Dryer and cleaner conditions would lead to a shorter time of cleaning and less used cleaning substance during the cleaning action.
Other additional and advantageous effects gained by embodiments of the invention include an enhanced flow rate of animals through the automatic teat treatment system as a result of the individualised treatment but also an optimised and thereby reduced use of resources such as water and electricity.